The Dream Tank 400 Gallon Display - IN THE WORKS - Input appreciated!!!!

[obiwanthegoby]

Ive also been looking at the other side of the block with stocking list, going with bigger more aggresive fish than the passive fish in the last list. Reasons for this are more diversity,..... less fish that will be semi or fully dependent on pods, and the fact I can't seem to keep fish rom carpet surfing. With a tank full of known carpet surfers I could be in for a lot of dissappointment. I havn't made a decision either way, and won't need to for a few months but this is the mock -up of my other list:

1 - Niger Trigger -or- Blue throat (This one could be ommited although Ive always wanted a niger just never had the room or set up for one... have seen them in other reefs though...)
1 - Yellow Tang
1 - Purple Tang
1 - Blue Hippo Tang
1 - Powder Blue Tang
1 - Scribbled Rabbit Fish
3 - 5 Schooling Bannerfish
1 - Bi color Dottyback
1 - Six line Wrasse
1 - Yellowtail Tamarin Wrasse
2 - Percula Clowns ( 1 Onyx 1 Picasso)
1 - Blackcap Basslet
1 - Long Nosed Hawkfish
1 - Yellow Assesor
1 - Blue Assesor
1 - Zebra Goby
1 - _________ Blenny
2 - 3 - Neon Gobies
2 - Bangaii Cardinals
1 - White Ray Shrimp Goby
1 - Pink and Blue Prawn Goby
1 - Gecko Goby
1 - Green Mandarin Fish

 

[obiwanthegoby]

Also having issues with the Reeflo. When I swapped out the needle wheels it looks like I didnt get the seal back in good...or maybe too good. I have a leak comming from the skimmer, Mike at reef Specialty told me to hand tighten it in, but hand tighten encompasses a wide range of torques. So I will be draining it and checking into this in the next few days, it could be the main seal too, It's hard to tell, but it's looking like the shaft seal.

OBI

Also will be moving a few mother colonies over today or tommorow... pictures to follow.

 

[obiwanthegoby]

New pictures... more coral...

Pink Mille Colony

Green Birdsnest

Blue Mille

Baby Blue Digi and Green Cap

Green Hydnaphora

Metallic Blue Pocilipora

Green Bali

I also added a piece of blue ridge but didnt get a picture....

 

[obiwanthegoby]

While messing around with the powerhead in the sump and I also moved one of the "bubble trap" buckets I began to see bubbles in the tank again... not sure what I did... Hopefully they'll be gone tonight. It looks like I may be switching to an acrylic or glass sump after all...

 

[obiwanthegoby]

Ive also added a bottle of Tigger Pods from reef nutrition. Says there is between 2000 and 4000 pods. We'll see what happens. The were bright red but small enough I can't locate them now. (its been a few days, they could all be dead...)

 

[erics3000]

you might want to put some phyto plankton to feed the pods. Your setup ids really coming along nicely. Why the change to the acrylic tank??

 

[obiwanthegoby]

The switch to the acrylic sump could take place if I cant get rid of the micro bubbles. Would go to a traditional sump so that the baffles will take care of the bubbles. The high flow going through the tank just creates too many darn bubbles.

 

[melev]

Why? What does the material of the sump matter? Let's see it once again, so we can identify the source of the problem or the solution.

 

[obiwanthegoby]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14784112#post14784112 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
Why? What does the material of the sump matter? Let's see it once again, so we can identify the source of the problem or the solution.

Melev,

It's not the material of the sump, I will take some pictures tonight though. It is the fact i am using a tub for the sump I believe. My four drains (2 from tank, 1 from fuge, 1 from skimmer, all 2" PVC drain into the sump, 2 on each side.) The air bubbles in the water don't have a chance to escape to the surface before they are sucked back into the pump. At least that's what I believe is happening. I saw a huge decrease in bubbles when I added the "bubble traps" I made. Each side (2 drains) empty into a filter sock that is inside of a 5 gallon bucket. The 5 gallon bucket has holes in the bottom perimeter of it to allow the air to travel upward and the water to flow out the bottom. I just hate that I have to run filter socks 24/7 to get rid of the bubbles. I thought of having some acrylic baffle boxes made for the water to drain into (A tall box with concentric boxes out side of it, that would cause water to overflow into the second box shorter box and so on. Ill see if I can illustrate it after class.), or just going to a traditional acrylic sump if I can't get rid of the problem.

Will Follow up later... TEST TIME!!! BOO!!!

Obi

 

[erics3000]

I agree with Marc I have no bubbles in mine. Evan with the skimmer in there also.

 

[melev]

What about filling up that bucket with a bunch of LR rubble? Or a smaller bucket that fits within the bigger one? Fill the bigger bucket 1/3 full of LR rubble, then insert the smaller bucket. Have the tank drain into the smaller one, which overflows into the larger one. The water must pass through the rubble to exit the holes around the base of the bucket.

It can also be done with French drain piping. I think psteeleb made something once with that, or maybe it was Ed Estes. It was a black sleeve within a larger black sleeve, and the water had to overflow one to get into the other, and exit out around the base.

 

[obiwanthegoby]

That could be done.... smart man melev... smart man! Aparently I am not smart... I just bombed a composites test.

*Brain churning*

....Thank you!

 

[obiwanthegoby]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14784254#post14784254 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
What about filling up that bucket with a bunch of LR rubble? Or a smaller bucket that fits within the bigger one? Fill the bigger bucket 1/3 full of LR rubble, then insert the smaller bucket. Have the tank drain into the smaller one, which overflows into the larger one. The water must pass through the rubble to exit the holes around the base of the bucket.

It can also be done with French drain piping. I think psteeleb made something once with that, or maybe it was Ed Estes. It was a black sleeve within a larger black sleeve, and the water had to overflow one to get into the other, and exit out around the base.

Any links to those builds or pics of how it was done?

 

[melev]

Well, if I could have remembered, I would have provided those links. I'm just not positive who's tank it was that had that. Both of those are their actual usernames, if I happen to be right.

 

[obiwanthegoby]

I found Steel..... but couldn't find a thread on his tank... will look for estes.

Mean while this is a preliminary Idea... The 2 inch drain will drain into a 3 inch piece of PVC glued to the bottom of the bucket, which will over flow into the 4 inch glued (or siliconed) to the bottom of the bucket as well. The four inch will be positioned just above the water line of the sump. The water will then pass through the holes at the bottom of the bucket.......

Looking at some ideas with the french drain as well... I have bubbles I need to get rid of in the fuge....

 

[melev]

That's the basic idea.

The refugium's feed line should be half submerged, half above water. This allows the air to breathe out and water to pour out gently, bubble-free.

 

[obiwanthegoby]

Yea, I tried positioning like that once before The water is just very turbulent. I'll tinker with it tonight after work. Also having trouble getting my PH above 8.1? Could it just be the new tank or should I be dosing Kalk everynight to make up for the low PH comming out of the Ca Reactor (~6.5 - 6.6)? (never used a CA reactor before, wasn't sure how much it actually affects tank PH)

 

[melev]

The calcium reactor usually lowers the pH in the tank by .2 So without my reactor, the tank reaches 8.3 to 8.4. With it on, it is 8.2 at the peak of the day.

Very turbulent - perhaps too much water is pouring into the refugium. I recommend 75% of the draining water go to the skimmer, 25% to the refugium.

 

[obiwanthegoby]

Its hard to give a good estimate of how much is going to the skimmer, given that in a gravity drain a 1" pipe will flow about 600 gal/hr, I'd say the skimmer is recieving that. (The 1 inch entering the skimmer is ball valved and at present is 100% open.) The 2inch drain comming out of the overflow is wyed off, the straight part of the Wye is then reduced to a 1inch (to fit the connection to the skimmer) and the Wye'd part continues as 2 inch heading to the sump.

On the opposite side overflow I have a similar set up with the fuge in place of the skimmer. The drain goes into a Wye, the straigh portion of the Wye heads to the fuge through a ball valve, The wyed portion heads directly to the sump.

The mess going into the sump before the bubble traps.
[

Can't see much here but you might be able to pick it out.

Skimmer Plumbing

 

[obiwanthegoby]

Ok guys question.... all the corals in the tank look great... polyps extended much more than they were in the 120 and nothing is bleaching or fading. I actually am seeing polyps out of my blue montipora digita that I havn't seen out for over 8 months (when it was in the 120). I was going to gt some snails from an online vendor, Cerith, Turbo, Nerite, and Nassarus,.... something caught my eye.... they have a couple pieces of rare coral that I have been dying to get a hold of for the past year.... they are aquacultured.... Given the above info and what I've been seeing out of my coral in the 400gal.... I think things are stable. Would it be a dumb idea to grab 1 or 2 of these frags now? or should I wait and see if I can pick some up later after the tank matures more. Being more specific the frag is a piece of true undata. Like I said I'd love to have it but not sure if the time is right..... as stated before this is the first tank I have set up myself and started up myself. Both of the other tanks I have had have been transplanted from a friends house to mine... so as far as the time tables for addition.... I just have no experiance.